Under the radar: Golden Axe: Beast Rider

By Mike Koss

One would think that when you’re reviving an almost 20 year old franchise that you’d want to have some type of fanfare. Seems that Sega does not seem to think so since Golden Axe: Beast Rider is due to hit tomorrow, October 14th, and the only information has been the same in-print magazine advertisement, a trailer, a teaser, and a video interview with fans and the original developer. There are a couple of screenshots, some of which are also found in the in-print magazine ad, but nothing to really write home about. Oh, and IGN has a short preview up with about as much information as available in the trailer.

When I first caught a glimpse of this last year, I was immediately excited by the chance to play another Golden Axe game. I absolutely loved the first two games in the series, including the single-player only port to the SegaCD. In the heyday of the Genesis, these games were staples for cooperative play with my brother, our friends, and I. So when I saw the title and the first screenshots, I time-warped back to my childhood and basked in warm memories.

So in trying to track down what information is available about the game, I found out a very important and gaping hole: there is no co-op play in this release. That’s unfortunate, since that was one of my favorite parts of the series. “CAST IT!” was a common yelled phrase during the boss battles between each other to indicate it was time to bring down Hell (or a dragon) itself on an insurmountable foe. Seems now I’ll just have to yell it to myself. That was one of the most exciting parts of the games. To cast the big spells, you had to collect/horde the magic bottles until you built up enough for the strongest levels. This usually meant not casting any spells until the ubiquitous end of level boss. The varied types of magic and their accompanying animations were exciting to watch unfold on the screen with dazzling displays that would fill the entire screen, and all before the advent of the Final Fantasy summon’s and their 2 minutes of video.

If it’s not obvious from the title, this one is centered on another fan favorite part of the series: the beasts. In the original games, there were different beasts with their own type of attack. From a simple sweep attack to a fire-breathing lizard-dragon, the beasts became a hot commodity. In fact, players could attack each other and knock the other off the beast to steal it. Of course, this had the downside that it lessened the ‘life’ of the beast and after a pre-determined amount of knock-off’s, or inactive time, the beast would run off the screen. So once again, with out the co-op play mode, looks like I won’t have to compete with another player over my coveted ride.

In a time of the year that is generally over stuffed with great games, it’s going to be shame if this is a sleeper hit since I’d really like to see it revisited with a sequel with atleast multiplayer. Here’s hoping that Sega and Secret Level bring an awesome hack-and-slash action/adventure to the table in a few days.